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Mother's Little Helper
|backstory = Gideon |airdate = April 9, 2017 |writer = Story: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Teleplay: Paul Karp |director = Billy Gierhart |previous = A Wondrous Place |next = Awake }} "Mother's Little Helper" is the sixteenth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Paul Karp after a story by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, and directed by Billy Gierhart. It is the one hundredth and twenty-seventh episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 9, 2017. Synopsis Gold and Belle convince Emma to help Gideon, explaining that together they can stop the Black Fairy. Henry experiences a disorienting shift in his powers that forces Regina to seek counsel from the previous Author. Meanwhile, in Fairy Tale Land, Hook attempts to win the assistance of an old adversary by betting his most prized possession on a game of cards. And, in a flashback, the Black Fairy tortures young Gideon in hopes of molding him into the perfect apprentice. Recap Deleted Scenes "Itsy-Bitsy Nightmare" (Scene 14) Emma and Gideon are running from the spider and hide inside a room in the Sorcerer's mansion. Emma wonders "what the hell" that was. Gideon explains that it was the Great Spider From the Echoless Forest. "The what from the what?", she asks. He tell her that it is a monster from a book, Her Handsome Hero". Emma remarks, "From a book. Great. We are running from a pop-up character" and wonders why the Black Fairy would send it here. Gideon says that she did it to kill them before they get the chance to kill her. An angry Gideon throws a table lamp into the wall, where it breaks in a shower of electricity. Emma tells him to call down or he's going to get them both killed. Gideon wonders why she cares anyway; without the tear, the spell is destroyed and she is not getting Hook back. He believes that their alliance is at an end, but Emma refuses to abandon him. He tells her that after everything he's done, she should walk away. Emma says that Saviors don't do that and she won't let the Black Fairy or her "itsy-bitsy nightmare" terrorize him or her or this town. "So let's go down there and destroy it", she whispers. At that, she walks off to fight the beast. Gideon reluctantly follows. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills *Josh Dallas *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Rebecca Mader *Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Patrick Fischler as the Author/Isaac *Giles Matthey as Gideon *Charles Mesure as Black Beard *Jaime Murray as the Black Fairy *Grayson Gabriel as Adult Roderick *Anton Starkman as Ten-year-old Gideon Co-Starring *Peter Marcin as Chief *Mason McKenzie as Roderick *Ingrid Torrance as Severe Nurse *Mathew Bittroff as Lost Boy *Rohan Campbell as Male Miner *Eleanor Jane as Nurse *Nickolas Gregory Johnston as Child Trivia |-|Production Notes= Title *The title card features the forest covered with spiderwebs.File:616Title.png *The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on January 5, 2017. *Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis are fans of the rock band The Rolling Stones. The episode name is a reference to the band's song of the same name. Production Notes *For the opening scene where the Black Fairy is flying though the night, Jaime Murray was placed inside a room with at least fifty different cameras and photographed from every conceivable angle. *The scenes in the Sorcerer's Mansion were originally supposed to take place in the forest but were moved indoors due to heavy rain. *In the episode script, Regina asks Isaac, "Are we bargaining now? Is that what's happening?", and Isaac answers, "You're quick. I always enjoyed writing you. A challenge for the intellect." This exchange is not in the final episode. *When Gideon's sword starts to glow with magic, there is a wide shot of Storybrooke Main Street,File:616Light.png which is stock footage from an establishing shot which was shown after the dock scene in "Murder Most Foul".File:612TalkedToRobin.png The new shot does not have any people in it, while the original shot shows two extras walking past the clock tower, indicating that the new shot was created from cut footage from before or after the extras walked down on the street. |-|Episode Connections= Event Chronology *The Dark Realm flashbacks take place after present day events of "Changelings" and before present day events of "Wish You Were Here". *The Storybrooke events take place after "A Wondrous Place" and before "Awake". ::*Isaac asks for tickets to the musical ''Hamilton in New York City, which made its debut at The Public Theater in February 2015, and officially opened on Broadway in August 2015. However, according to Adam Horowitz, the musical hit Broadway about 18 months earlier in the series' universe than in real life, indicating that the episode takes place in the first half of 2014. This, however, is impossible: One of the previous episodes, "I'll Be Your Mirror", takes place in the autumn (Henry refers to the homecoming dance as "the fall formal", and this tradition usually takes place in late September or early October) - meaning that the story would have to take place during the ''second half of 2014. ::*Further complicating matters is that in "The Final Battle Part 1", which takes place not long after this episode, the Black Fairy refers to Henry as being fourteen years old ("Now, thanks to you, I have a 14-year-old boy, who still believes in fairy tales"). Since Henry was born in August 2001, the story would have to take place in 2015 for Henry to be fourteen at this point. *The Enchanted Forest events take place after "A Wondrous Place" and before "The Final Battle Part 1". *The Neverland events take place after "Save Henry" and before "Awake". Episode Connections *The Black Fairy kidnapped Gideon in "Wish You Were Here". *When Regina is making a potion, one of the ingredients that she asks Henry to fetch for her is tongue of newt and emphasizes that she needs the tongue, not the eye. Eye of newt was one of the potion ingredients Henry found while looking through Regina's potion ingredients in "The Apprentice". *The Evil Queen cast a spell on the Storybrooke Town Line in "A Bitter Draught". *Mary Margaret and David were put under the Sleeping Curse in "Heartless" by the Evil Queen. *Gideon forced Hook to leave Storybrooke in "Page 23" and Emma discovered he did not abandon her in "A Wondrous Place". *Hook and Black Beard talk about the first time Hook traded the Jolly Roger for a magic bean from Black Beard, something that was previously alluded to in "There's No Place Like Home" and "Poor Unfortunate Soul". *Hook mentions how Black Beard lost the Jolly Roger in Arendelle, an event that was previously referred to in "Poor Unfortunate Soul". *Isaac was arrested in "Operation Mongoose Part 2". *The mysterious page that Henry wrote is translated in "The Final Battle Part 2". *Hook escapes from Neverland and is reunited with Emma in "Awake". *Gideon gets his heart back in "The Final Battle Part 2" (it is first implied that he gets it back in "The Black Fairy", but this is later revealed to be untrue). *Isaac states that at the end of the storybook, the Savior fights the final battle. This event was previously alluded to by Rumplestiltskin in "Pilot", who prophesied that after Emma was reunited with her parents, the final battle would begin. The final battle takes place in "The Final Battle Part 1" and "The Final Battle Part 2". *When Regina seeks out Isaac about Henry's author powers, he is sitting at a desk in front of an electric typewriter. Isaac previously mentioned being a user of IBM Selectric typewriters in "Operation Mongoose Part 1". |-|Cultural References= ''Lost *When Gideon is inside the library, the time on the clock is 8:15,File:616ClockTower.png two of the recurring Lost numbers. Fairytales and Folklore *This episode features Captain Hook and the Lost Boys from the Peter Pan story, and the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale. Popular Culture *Regina mentions that part of cleaning up after her serum counterpart involved freeing Doctor Dolittle from his cage. This is in reference to the famous character from Hugh Lofting's classic children's books, who shuns human patients in favor of animals, with whom he can speak in their own languages. *This episode features Black Beard, the infamous English pirate who is the figure most often associated with the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, and has been featured heavily in works of fiction across a range of genres. *Isaac asks Regina for tickets to the musical Hamilton in New York City. *Emma calls the spider "Charlotte", a reference to E. B. White's children's novel Charlotte's Web, which tells the story of a pig and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. *Emma mentions the Marvel superhero Spider-Man when talking about the Great Spider from the Echoless Forest that Gideon and the Black Fairy summoned from the Her Handsome Hero book. *Isaac jokingly refers to Henry as "Shakespeare". |-|Set Notes= Props Notes *Henry's notes read:File:616WhatIsThis.png ::Ingredients to break Sleeping Curse ::1) Tongue of newt Eye Tongue!!! ::2) Otter spleen ::3) Goat tears *The book page that Emma places on the table to enact Gideon's spell contains a version of Lorem ipsum,File:616BookShakes.png a filler text commonly used as mock-content when testing a given page layout or font. Lorem ipsum consists of badly garbled Latin, based on sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), a philosophical work by the Roman philosopher Cicero. Lorem ipsum is often used when previewing the layout of a document, as the use of more understandable text could easily distract the user from the layout being examined. Emma's page begins with the opening words of the standard Lorem ipsum passage: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit". *When Her Handsome Hero magically opens as the Great Spider From the Echoless Forest emerges, an excerpt from the story can be seen.File:616SpiderPage.png It ends with "But Gideon was unafraid. He drew his sword and turned to face the evil Sorcerer, ready to save the people he loved." This is the same excerpt that Belle read to Jack and Jill's infant son in "Changelings". **Note that the text is only seen from far away and is extremely difficult to read. A partial deciphering, done via digital image enhancements, and close scrutiny of the Blu-ray playing on a large television screen, reads: There was illegible words illegible words along the evil Sorcerer's illegible words purpose of dead (?) spells that had cautioned people illegible words among the farm folk illegible words of these illegible words in barely more word than a whisper from the (?) caverns of the old word illegible words there was a illegible words the word would word everything that was said good or word he had heard word of illegible words growing up with them in (?) word every where part of it illegible words But Gideon was unafraid. He drew on his sword and turned to face the Evil Sorcerer, ready to save the people he loved. *The couch that Belle and Mr. Gold are sitting on in the Sorcerer's MansionFile:616ListenToThem.png is the same prop used in the Tremaine Manor in the Season Seven episodes "Hyperion Heights",File:701MyWings.png "The Garden of Forking Paths"File:703SomethingFromYou.png and "Wake Up Call".File:706OnlyLovedChild.png *When Henry opens the storybook, excerpts from Charles Kingsley's novel The Water-BabiesFile:616SnowWhiteAndRoseRed.png and the Grimm fairy tales "Snow-White and Rose-Red" and "The Golden Bird"File:616TheGoldenBird.png can be seen. **The excerpt from The Water-Babies is from chapter IV of Kingsley's novel. Set Dressing *Two hanging cages are sitting on the floor in the Black Fairy's chambers.File:616ReachingForOrb.png File:616CleaningHerBoot.png The hanging cage was a medieval torture device in which the victim was either displayed and later freed from, or locked inside and left to die.The Wrong View of History, Jack Paraskovich, Xlibris, 2016, pp. 118 - 119. Facsimile by Google Books. **One of the cages also appeared in the Underbrooke Sheriff's Department in the Season Five episode "The Brothers Jones"File:515EvilTwin.png and the Dream World version of the Dark castle in "The Savior".File:601CarryingTray2.png **Both cages later appear in the basement of the Wish Realm version of the Dark Castle in the Season Seven episode "Homecoming".File:721SearchingForFamily.png *The chandeliers hanging in the Black Fairy's chambersFile:616CleaningHerBoot.png are the same ones used at the Wilmore Estate in "A Bitter Draught".File:602NightParty2.png *The number plateFile:616NumberPlate.png on the car that Isaac is given reads "WED 1901", a reference to [[Walt Disney|'W'''alter '''E'lias D'''isney]], who was born in '''1901, and was a former in-universe Author. **The expiration date is December 2015. Costume Notes *Belle is wearingFile:616OneMoreTime.png a Kooples Ruffle Bib Blouse . |-|Other Notes= Filming Locations *The scenes in the Black Fairy's chambers were filmed on a green-screen set at The Bridge Studios.File:IGlee j buckley-616.png *The Spanish Banks, a series of beaches in the city of Vancouver, double as the Neverland beach for this episode. File:IGhelgaungurait-616.png (notice Black Beard at the far left) International Titles Videos 6x16 - Mother's Little Helper - Promo 6x16 - Mother's Little Helper - Sneak Peek 1 6x16 - Mother's Little Helper - Sneak Peek 2 References }} ---- nl:Mother's Little Helper fr:6x16 ru:Мамин маленький помощник